


The World You Made, The Ending You Earned

by mshakarios



Series: Table For Three (Themmus Fics) [9]
Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: (because like in all my fics thane survives longer lmao), Domestic Fluff, Family Fluff, Fatherhood, Ficlet Collection, Fluff and Humor, Gen, M/M, Not Canon Compliant, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-02
Updated: 2019-01-02
Packaged: 2019-10-02 13:35:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17265137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mshakarios/pseuds/mshakarios
Summary: A collection of short fics about Emmett Shepard, his two husbands, and their unconventional but loving little family.(Shameless tooth-rotting slice-of-life fluff, original child characters, Thane/M!Shep/Garrus but super domestic and family centric, like in all my fics canon has been cherrypicked and disregarded when necessary and Thane is alive post-ME3. Ninety percent fluffy dad shenanigans. Rating is just for a bit of language here and there.)





	1. Fragile

**Author's Note:**

> Listen...I've got a lot of feelings about the Shepard-Vakarian-Krios family and their domestic shenanigans. I can't stop writing kid-centric fluff. Someone stop me.
> 
> This is a place to dump all my soft, fluffy minifics about Thane/Emmett/Garrus and their family. Contains OC babies, family bonding, and domestic slice-of-life stuff. Give these dudes some peace. 
> 
> Title comes from the finale of TAZ Balance, because that line never fails to make me cry. There's nothing I love more in fiction than characters earning their happy ever afters in the safe, triumphant worlds they created, and I felt it was fitting for this. Mass Effect canon can take its depressing writing somewhere else, this is a sadness free zone. Emmett and his husbands will raise their family in domestic comfort in a galaxy they gave their all to make safe.

“It’s...soft.” 

Norius’s subvocals hum with confusion as he curiously assess the small bundle in Emmett’s arms. The soft lights of the living room illuminate the newborn human’s face from strange angles, making her pink skin and chubby cheeks seem even more alien to her turian brother. The confused three-year-old looks back and forth between all of them, his three fathers and his older brother, searching their faces for the answers to all of his burning questions.

“‘She,’ not ‘it,’ Nori.” Emmett murmurs, slight amusement mixing with the awe and adoration in his voice. “This is your new baby sister.” 

“She’s squishy.” 

“She’s a human, like me.” He smiles indulgently at his son. “Human babies are squishy, especially when they’re first born. We’re all gonna have to be careful.” Norius’s face grows fearful, and Emmett internally kicks himself over his words. 

“Will you break her?!” Fear suddenly fills the turian toddler’s warbling little voice. “Don’t break her!” 

“No, no, Nori. Don’t worry about that. We’re all gonna be careful; nobody’s gonna break her.” Garrus reassures Norius, resting one clawed hand on his carapace. “She’s fine, just a little fragile. You were fragile too when you were little.” The toddler seems to calm down a little bit, and goes back to examining his human sister; Emmett shoots his husband a grateful look. Garrus has already expressed his own anxious bewilderment to his husbands about their human baby’s softness and fragility, but he hides these worries well as he reassures their son. 

“What’s her name?” 

“We’re gonna call her Juniper.” 

“Juniper?” Norius leans in close, the plates of his face almost touching the soft skin of the sleeping newborn as he pronounces the name curiously, feeling it in his mouth. Emmett’s eyes shine with amusement and affection as he watches his children meet for the first time. 

“You’re a big brother now, Nori.” Garrus says as the boy finally leans away from the small bundle. “How’s it feel?” 

Norius shrugs and makes a little noise in the back of his throat. He turns his attention to his third father and older brother, sitting across from them on the other couch. Thane is gazing adoringly at Juniper, unable to tear his eyes from the sleeping infant. Kolyat meets Norius’s gaze and gives his younger brother an encouraging little nod. Norius crawls clumsily off the couch, toddling over to the two drell and raising his arms in a request to be picked up. Kolyat helps him up onto the couch, and Norius leans against his brother, speaking to him quietly.

“Is being a big brother hard?” 

“It’s...not too bad. There’s a lot to learn though. At least there was for me, with you.” Kolyat speaks carefully to him, watching the little boy’s mandibles continue to twitch nervously at his words and realizing that he could have tried a bit harder on the “reassuring” front. As he speaks, Thane turns to look at his two sons, fatherly love and pride shining in his dark eyes as he watches them. Norius mumbles anxiously in response to Kolyat’s words.

“I don’t wanna do a bad job…”

“I think you’ll be alright. This is new for me too, you know. Having a turian sibling was one thing; a human is going to be completely different. But we’ll learn together, right?”

The little turian nods up at his brother, and as the family sits together in the living room marveling at their newest addition, Norius finds himself growing excited at the idea of having a little sister, regardless of how squishy and fragile she might be.


	2. Cozy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thane is absolutely Junie's favorite dad. Like, she loves Emmett and Garrus too, but Thane is Her Very Favorite. I love the thought of them spending quality time together like this, just relaxing and each doing their own thing with only occasional interaction. Anyway take this fluff, I love them very much.

“Hi, Dad!” 

Dark eyes glancing up from his reading, Thane smiles fondly at the little human girl standing in the doorway of the study. 

“Hello, June.” He can tell from the hopeful, adoring look on her freckled face that she has come to spend time with him, as she often does. “I’m not busy; make yourself comfortable.”

Juniper nods, red curls bouncing, as she bounds clumsily over to the chair where her father sits, dropping her coloring book at his feet before plopping down excitedly next to it. Thane reaches down to ruffle her curls affectionately for a moment before returning his attention to the datapad in his hands. 

This has become a regular occurrence for them. Five-year-old Juniper will tell anyone within earshot that Dad is her best friend in the world, in the galaxy, in the whole universe even. Their temperaments match, both calm and collected and prone to long periods of thoughtful silence. They pass the time together like this often, Thane absorbed in a book or in one of the puzzles his husbands have been buying for him lately, Juniper cuddled up at his feet flipping through the pages of a holographic pop-up book or scribbling carefully in one of her coloring books (the vintage kind, with real paper and real crayons, at Emmett’s insistence). 

Both father and daughter sit quietly for several minutes, with only the occasional sound of wax clacking against wax as Juniper searches for a particular crayon in the container. Eventually, she pokes her head up to look at him, glancing at the lightly steaming mug on the small table beside him.

“Can I have some tea, Dad?”

“I don’t think you would enjoy this. It is far more bitter than the tea your Papa let you try the other day.” He warns her, trying to make it clear that this tea is nothing like the sugary concoction that Emmett drinks every morning. “You are welcome to try it, though.” 

Despite his warnings, she nods. Thane lifts the mug to his lips, blowing softly to cool the contents before carefully lowering it and letting Juniper take a sip. Her face contorts in disgust, brown eyes narrowing and freckled little nose scrunching up. 

“Ew.”

“I _did_ warn you.” 

She plops back down to the floor, that comical look of disgust still on her face, and Thane watches her for a moment with amused fatherly adoration in his eyes before returning to his reading, continuing to take regular sips of his bitter tea. They slip back into comfortable silence, the quiet in the study broken only occasionally by Juniper asking for her father’s opinion on her picture, and Thane answering with advice and praise for her handiwork so far. Eventually Emmett calls the two of them to dinner, and setting his datapad and empty mug aside, Thane rises from his chair and scoops his daughter up into his arms.

“I think Papa and Daddy are both going to like your new picture.” He looks at the farm scene in her hands, its background a messy scribble of green skies and orange grass, with a large partially-colored purple barn off to the side and several Earth creatures in the middle. Thane has seen these strange creatures once or twice when visiting Emmett’s mothers’ farm on Earth, and while they certainly aren’t bright blue and gold striped in his perfectly recalled memories, he appreciates Juniper’s creativity and considers it a good effort nonetheless. “Do you remember what those animals are called?” 

“They’re…” She thinks for a moment, racking her memory. “What are they?”

“They’re called pigs. We saw them the last time we visited Grandma Hannah and Grandma Natalie.” 

“Pigs!” She exclaims excitedly as they enter the kitchen. “Daddy, Papa, look at my pigs!” 

As they hang the creatively-colored pigs on the refrigerator and sit down to dinner, the empty tea mug sits and cools on the table in the study. The next time Juniper scurries in to spend time with her father, she finds two cups of tea sitting at Thane’s side, one full of his normal brew and the other much smaller, cooled almost to room temperature, and filled with a sweetened, caffeine-free herbal tea. They sit together in comfortable silence, and Juniper curls up happily with her coloring book in her customary spot, feeling grown-up and important and so very loved as she sips from her own cup of tea under the watchful eye of her father and best friend.


	3. Career Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let Emmett rest...honestly...stop asking him about the Reapers, let him talk about making cookies and doing elaborate woodworking. It's what he deserves.

“Norius, your father is next.” The human teacher says excitedly, eyeing Emmett over as he walks to the front of the classroom. He nods at the parent presenter who went before him, a kind-looking asari who had told the class about spending the last two hundred years as an accountant; to her credit, she had somehow managed to make crunching numbers for two centuries sound at least a little more exciting than it was. She sits back down beside her daughter, who throws her little blue arms around her mother in a proud hug. Emmett locks eyes with Nori; like most of the kids in the class, the seven-year-old turian is looking at him with excited anticipation. The parents, on the other hand, are all staring at the heavy, red-haired human man in front of them with astonished awe that Emmett finds himself getting quite sick of. (“You save the galaxy a couple times, die once or twice, lose half yer limbs, and everybody starts lookin’ at ya like you’re Jesus Christ descendin’ from the fuckin’ heavens!” He remembers complaining to his husbands several years ago. He knows that people are grateful, but he wishes they’d at least try to treat “The Great Commander Emmett Shepard” like just another normal person.) He decides to focus on the expressions of the children instead. 

“Hey, kids!” He shoots the class a lopsided little grin, giving a small wave with his intact arm as he looks the group over. “You can call me Mister Emmett, or just Mister Em if you’d like, and I’m Nori’s Papa!” 

A few of the kids wave back, including the asari with the accountant mother and the little turian girl with two dads who sits next to Nori (her fathers, a turian and a quarian, are both sitting with her; Emmett assumes they plan on presenting together). He continues, the kids’ excitement proving to be infectious as a giddiness begins to creep into his voice.

“I know all of y’all’s parents have got some really cool jobs; mine probably isn’t as cool, but I like it a lot! I’m a stay-at-home dad. Nori’s Dad ‘n’ Daddy both work, and I stay at home with Nori and his little sister!”

Some of the parents in the room look at each other with confusion. Emmett knows what they were expecting him to talk about, and he gets a twinge of satisfaction in his chest from defying their expectations. His military career was long, bloody, and an almost constant parade of horror and trauma. He has earned the right to ignore it. And he sure as hell isn’t about to bring it up to a room full of small children. 

“Nori’s sister Junie just started Pre-K, so I’m home alone a lot of the time, at least when my husbands are on work trips. In between droppin’ Nori and his sister off and pickin’ ‘em up, I’ll usually do a bit of housework here and there. In the past few years, I’ve gotten to be pretty handy. In more ways than one!” He puts his metal left hand up for everyone to see, earning a few scattered giggles from the children. A human boy in the front row raises his hand, and Emmett nods in acknowledgement.

“Why do you have a metal arm?”

The boy’s mother looks mortified, and begins to scold him under her breath. Emmett smiles.

“Nah, ma’am, it’s alright. He’s fine.” He shrugs. “It’s a good question, right? Short answer is, I was sort of in an...accident. A few years ago. They had to replace this arm, and also one of my legs.” He pulls up his right pant leg slightly, revealing the shiny rose-gold-colored metal leg that matches his arm. “I’m alright now, though. It works great. It’s all linked to my brain, and moves just like my old arm and leg did; it doesn’t get in my way much. Pretty annoying when I go through security, though. I drive those metal detector machines crazy.” He grins at the human boy, who is looking at him with awe. Several more children raise their hands, and the teacher speaks up from her desk.

“Please try to hold your questions until the end. I’m sure Comman -- _Mister Emmett_ will be happy to answer them for you.” The hands tentatively go back down. Emmett continues. 

“Anyway, I also cook a lot. Having Nori was a bit of a learnin’ curve, y’know, since he eats different food than me. But I think I’ve got the hang of it now. Nori says my dextro cooking is, and I quote, ‘okay, Papa.’ And according to his Daddy, it’s ‘a lot better than it used to be, Em.’ And if those aren’t some shinin’ recommendations, I don’t know what is.” His freckled, bearded face shines as he talks about his husband. “I’m better at makin’ food I can actually eat and taste-test, of course. I make a _mean_ eggplant lasagna. And I grill a lot.” Norius’s little voice suddenly pipes up from the crowd of children, interrupting him. 

“You make good cookies, Papa!”

“Oh, you’re right, kiddo! I can make cookies. Nori and his Daddy both tell me that they’re the best dextro thing I make. I’ll usually bake up two batches of cookies at a time, one dextro and one levo, and I color code ‘em with food coloring to avoid, uh... _accidents_.” He grimaces. “We’ve had some mixups in the past. The colors make it nice and easy; the blue cookies are for Nori and Daddy, and the orange ones are for the rest of us.” A turian dad sitting near the back of the room with his asari daughter suddenly perks up, as if hearing a brilliant idea he had never considered before. 

“Let’s see, uh...I also do woodworking!” He excitedly fumbles around in the bag at his hip, and pulls out a small, painted wooden carving of a four-legged black-and-white animal. Several of the humans nod with recognition, and some of the non-humans look at them for answers. 

“This is a carving I made of a cow! It’s an Earth animal, for those of y’all who don’t know. My moms, Nori’s grandmas, have a farm on Earth; they raise cows there, and some other animals too. Pigs ‘n’ chickens ‘n’ stuff. When they first bought their farm a few years back, I carved ‘em a little cow as a housewarming present. This was one of my practice runs. See, the details on the head and face aren’t really that great…” He holds the carving out so the children and parents can see it better. “Not that the final product was much better. I made these when I’d just started woodworking, y’see.” He chuckles sheepishly. “I’ve gotten a lot better, I promise. Was kinda rushin’ out the door this morning, and this was the only carving I could find. I’d’a brought one of my better ones if I’d had enough time to really look for ‘em.”

“He makes toys!” Norius pipes up once again. 

“Yeah, I do! I made toys for Nori and Junie when they were both little. I carved a baby rattle for Junie that I still have in a box somewhere!” The excitement in his voice is infectious; Norius beams with pride at his Papa, happy that all of his classmates can finally see what a cool father he has. 

“Anyway, that’s...my job, I guess. Kids, food, woodworking...it keeps me busy! I like it a lot. Couldn’t be happier.” He shrugs fondly, flashing the class a megawatt smile. The teacher speaks up.

“Alright, uh...does anyone have any questions for Mister Emmett?” 

Dozens of hands shoot up. 

The questions from the children are almost entirely about his day-to-day life. What’s his favorite food to make? (That eggplant lasagna he mentioned, he answers proudly, though he also makes great pancakes.) What’s the best carving he’s ever done? (The little corgi figurine he made for Juniper when she was three.) What do Nori’s other two daddies do? (Daddy has an important position in the Turian Hierarchy, and Dad... _travels_ for a living, he says after a long moment of hesitation.)

The questions from the adults are mostly related to his military service. He politely declines to answer them. He is here not as the esteemed war hero Commander Shepard (his last name isn’t even legally Shepard anymore, it’s Shepard-Vakarian-Krios; he insisted on taking both of his husbands’ names when they were wed, despite their warnings about it being “too long”), but as Mister Em, Nori’s stay-at-home Papa who just wants to tell all the kids about lasagna and woodworking. He feels that he’s earned the right to a little peace. Any questions about the Reaper War or his other military experiences are met with a polite shake of his head and the immediate picking of another raised hand. 

After a good number of questions, the teacher calls time on Emmett’s presentation. He cheerfully thanks the class for having him, then walks back down the rows of desks to sit back down beside Norius as the next parent walks to the front of the room. Emmett leans in to whisper to his son. 

“So, whadja think, kiddo? Is your Papa pretty cool?”

Nori wraps his father in a hug, mandibles wiggling excitedly. 

“You’re the coolest!” 

A few of the parents still give him strange looks, confused and even angry that the great Commander Shepard did not meet their expectations. Emmett shoots each of them a winning grin before returning to what really matters, pulling his son close and listening to the excited chatter of the children as the next parent begins to present.


End file.
